Autodesk PLM & Vault Professional Business Practice Assessment

Bradford White had managed their engineering CAD documentation within Microsoft Windows explorer folders for 30+ years with measurable success. However, as they looked to the future and were seeking ways to improve their historic processes, workflows, and internal collaboration methods, they established new corporate initiatives with their sights set on improving their procedures by way of applying “automation” to those historic manual systems.

Bradford White and D3 Technologies participated in various discovery sessions to review their existing Product Data Management (PDM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) business Methods. Through collective analysis and comparison of their old practices with mechanized functionality available through current technology, their primary business goals and corporate initiatives were formed and mapped out in preparation for their upgrade project. 

Their collective corporate goals were prioritized to include the automated management of data and processes, the institution of Autodesk PLM for enterprise-wide collaboration and product lifecycle management, the extension of data and design information to other business systems through the Autodesk PLM/PDM tools and finally the desired ability to shorten the design and production processes to get better products to market faster.

D3 Technologies recommended that the advancement of their Product Data Management (PDM) capabilities would best be solved by implementing Autodesk Vault Professional for managing their engineering CAD and general office documents as well as control of document and CAD file versions, revisions of CAD data along with engineering change orders. Autodesk PLM would be instituted to provide advanced features for the administration of product lifecycles, web client access and to extend data to other business systems.

By leveraging a seamless Autodesk solution that automates common data management activities, Bradford White can now standardize and safeguard their design process/environment and provide visible, traceable and accountable governance of engineering CAD data and related office documents. The solution, customized to their needs, allows them to take advantage of automated workspaces, customized end-user workflows and robust reporting capabilities of Autodesk products that are designed expressly to handle what had been historically manual processes and procedures previously done with “non-task specific” applications.

As the result of a thoughtful and carefully mapped integration process, Bradford White alongside D3 Technologies are able to address, with assured success, each stage gate of the process beginning with solution concept, project planning, solution development,  the iterative execution of the implementation of the solution,  and finally the  launch, adoption, and training aspects of the project. As a phased project, the stage is set for future enhancements, improvements, and refinements.

Delivery Date

Project Duration

Autodesk Solutions

• Vault PLM

Services Provided

• Migration
• Assessment of Needs
• Implementation
• Process Automation
• Strategy & Planning
• Workflow Optimization

Customer Industry

• Additive Manufacturing
• Design
• Subtractive Manufacturing